Human connection over virality

But friction is where the growth happens. Ideas need resistance to evolve. If your thoughts can’t survive three smart people pressing on their weak spots, they weren’t thoughts. They were vibes. And if your only collaborators are people who agree with you, you’re not collaborating. You’re cosplaying alignment.

Several of my friends (you know who you are) excel at pushing me, challenging my views, and ultimately creating friction and resistance to my ways of thinking.

I love this, even if it’s infuriating at times.

In real human conversations—whether running together in the woods, playing a quiet game of chess, talking on the phone during a walk, hiking together, just hanging out over decaf coffee, or through myraid other forms of intentional chatting—I’ve found moments of connection that matter.

Sometimes they’re pleasant, other times they’re challenging, but this is where real ideas can flourish, grow, become weathered, and really become something.

Trust isn’t built over social networks, with one-to-many blasts of short character pithy statements. It comes from time to develop thoughts, discuss those thoughts with real humans, and see where they go.

Via Westenberg.